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CarpetGate - getting to what underlays the issue

With a bit of luck CarpetGate will help find out a lot about the practicalities of why the Council Tax Payer is frequently ripped off.

The particular cost was agreed by the council as a fee to be paid to the subcontractor plus a small percentage to the contractor. The contractor has a responsibility for value for money - which in itself is an interesting question to resolve.

The Council does a lot of work on the basis of a schedule of rates. The idea of this is good that contractors get a mixture of work some of which is more profitable and some of which is less. The work is also done on a range of timescales.

It will take me some time to get into the details of this.

It all seems to be the same situation whereby the council puts itself into a weak negotiation position and then loses out.

The same thing applies to big projects as well. Ideally we should keep a number of options on a big project until the contractual stage. This enables a proper negotiation rather than one in which the boot is always on the other party's foot.

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